


Ghosts in the Machine

by jelliclekitten



Category: Antisepticeye - Fandom, Darkiplier - Fandom, Sean McLoughlin - Fandom, jacksepticeye, mark fischbach - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Gen, POV First Person, gender neutral hero, reader is hero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-13 11:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14111562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelliclekitten/pseuds/jelliclekitten
Summary: A small time Youtube Let's Player is selected by two infamous personas to try and save their creators before it's too late.





	1. Into the Void

_Today’s the day. I’m about three years behind everyone else, but I’m going to start doing Let’s Play videos on Youtube! I’ve finally got my computer set up to record everything, and I’ve got some good games lined up too._

**A Month Later:**   
_So what if no one’s checking them out? It takes time to build a base. I know this. Nobody on here started at 18 million, after all. I just need to be patient. I can do this._

**Four Months Later:**   
_...should I even bother filming tonight? No one’s even pity watching any more… No. No, I’m not giving up. Let’s bang out a horror game video; that might get some new viewers..._

**Eight Months Later:**   
_...I don’t care any more. I really don’t. I don’t want to try. No one even bothers. If no one wants to help, why should I give a damn?_

I’m sitting in my bedroom. It’s later than I should be up at this point, but I’m so wrapped up in my sulk that I’ve almost completely lost track of the time. I thought I had this figured out- I had been so damned sure that I had the right ideas, the right games, the right jokes all set up. I’m just about to get up to turn off my overhead light and go lay on my bed when a discordant buzz from my computer stops me.

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up the ghost,” I groan aloud before I realize something. My overhead light is already out, and the room is filled with the blackest darkness I have ever seen. And it all appears to be coming from me. The only light that seems to remain is the light from my computer’s screen, still on the Youtube front page where I’d left it hours before. “What-?! What the hell? What is this?!” I stagger away from my desk, tripping over my chair and sending it sailing into the pitch surrounding me as I fall on my ass and stare up at my computer. The buzzing is only growing louder, and the screen starts to rapidly cycle between green and red. I shove myself further away from the computer, but not as far as I want to get from it, when all of a sudden a voice comes from it.

“It’s so hard to keep going when no one is there for you, isn’t it?” The voice is calm, almost soothing, and it’s accompanied by a red glow emerging from the computer screen. It pulses steadily as the voice continues. “I can help with that. I can give you everything. I just need you to give yourself to me. It’s as simple as that-”

Another voice interrupts, and I realize that I had almost been completely enraptured by the first voice. “Shut your lying gob- you got the last one! And I’m starving. I haven’t got the patience for you to play your stupid mind games with this one.” This voice is coming from a green glow, though it pulses in a more erratic, frantic way.

“...what?” I venture, unsure if I’ve even spoken out loud until I actually hear my own voice.

The red glow speaks again, sounding a little irritated. “Maybe I would see that as my problem if you hunted with some finesse, old friend, rather than jumping on the first morsel that stumbles your way.”

I speak again, in the hope that it’ll somehow fix things. “Am- am I losing my mind? Is this what insanity is like? Because if this is just a dream I’d really like to wake up now, please.”

The green glow chuckles nastily at me. “You’ll only wish for insanity when we’ve decided who gets you.”

“It’s me, don’t kid yourself,” says the red glow.

“No one fucking asked you!” the green one bellows in response.

I watch as the red glow starts to change from an amorphous shape into one more human. The red darkens to black over most of the body, save for a red glow that traces around it. The man standing before me looks impeccable, and dangerous, as he smiles down at me. He offers a hand to help me to my feet and I accept before I can stop myself.

“And I don’t recall asking for your opinion, either.” He looks away from the green glow, directly at me, and I can’t look away. “Hello, little one. Judging by the stunned look on your face, you know exactly who I am.”

“This…” I have to fight for my voice. “This isn’t real. This can’t be real. You’re Darkiplier. You’re just a character.”

There’s the briefest appearance of rage in his expression before it’s replaced again with the patient smile he’s been wearing before me. “See, that’s the funny thing. You get enough people around to believe in something, to really… feel for something, and suddenly it can go from being a little bit part in some half-wit’s repertoire to being a very real entity.”

What he’s just said sinks in, and I take a step away from him and utter the first phrase that comes to mind. “Oh my God.”

His smile grows wider, and suddenly I’m reminded of all the nature documentaries where you watch the predator line up for the kill on the little fluffy animal. “Well… that is one way to put it.” He turns to look at the green glow, and my eyes follow his gaze. As he had just done, the green glow is also adopting a human form. I know him almost before he’s even finished, from the blaze of acid green hair, missing eye, and gaping neck wound. “And here I thought you wouldn’t have the energy to manifest.”

“Manifesting would be a hell of a lot easier if you’d let me feed,” he snarls in response, before turning his lone eye on me. “You know me as well, or has this smarmy asshole got to you too badly already?”

“Yes,” I stutter. “Antisepticeye.”

“Anti to my friends. And you can be my friend. Until you’re my dinner, anyways.”

“Would you please either shut up or stop being so relentlessly blunt.” Darkiplier says it like a command, not a question.

“Well we can’t all be so lucky as to trap ours when they’re sick, now, can we? Mine’s still got some fight in him.”

I blink. “Wait. You mean you’ve- oh my God you’ve both trapped Mark and Jack?”

“Bravo, my dear.” Darkiplier applauds briefly for me. “Yes, as a matter of fact, we have. Why?” There’s the predatory grin again. “Would you play hero for them?”

My throat goes dry, as Anti starts cackling. “Shit, that might actually be fun to watch!”

“Indeed. And judging by this one’s efforts on the source, there’s a certain persistence that should be entertaining.” Darkiplier leans in towards me. “We’ll go and fetch another to feed on. You have quite the job in front of you. Find our ‘creators’. Figure out how to free them. Let’s see how clever you can really be, when it’s a matter of life and death.”

“I didn’t agree with this-!” I blurt out as he turns to follow Anti into the inky depths around me. “Where- how- this isn’t fair!”

“This isn’t a fair, dear.” Darkiplier’s nearly disappeared completely into the dark, a flicker of red the only hint that he’s there at all. “This is a matter of life and death.”

And just like that, they’re both gone. I sit down in the black, only able to see myself, and immediately fight the urge to have a panic attack. I have no idea where I even am, let alone how to start this. 

_And why me?_ my brain screams at me. _What about me drew them to me?_

“Focus,” I tell myself through gritted teeth, shutting my eyes tight for a moment. “Focus. It has to start with Youtube somehow.”


	2. Ripe for the Taking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're in this deep. Time to find some clues.

After a few minutes calming myself down, I figured out that I had my phone on me for starters. After that, I figured out that if I really paid attention- which given the fact that I was in a black void of nothingness was kind of really easy- I could teleport myself into a video pulled up on my phone.

I obviously tested this with kitten videos, first.

“Okay,” I say, to my lap full of kittens. “Now I just need to figure out… literally everything else. So. I’m in Youtube. Which is still wild to say. I met Darkiplier and Antisepticeye. Which is also still wild to say. I know that they have… somehow taken Mark and Jack- Sean, I should probably get used to saying Sean if I might actually be saving him- they’re both hostage. Somewhere. Somehow. And I think Dark and Anti are eating people. But why? And how are they picking people?” I start chewing on my lip as I think, frowning as I do. I’m in the middle of mentally lecturing myself about how it’s a bad habit when I get the first taste of blood from my lip cracking. I reach up and touch my lip, pulling away my hand and looking at the spot of blood there.

“Well,” I say out loud over the kittens mewing, “I’m still real, I guess.” I get up, gently setting kittens aside and taking my phone back out. “Okay. I… I need clues. Like. A lot of clues.”

I look down at the Youtube app, hoping against hope that something will show up on my screen to give me an idea. I’m greeted with my own video, the last one I posted last month, that I watched only half of before getting angry at my lack of success with my plan of becoming a… well, at least a _known_ Let’s Play personality on Youtube.

Wait.

“Holy shit that’s it!” I shout to no one in particular. “Is it because I’m a Let’s Player too? Well, I want to be one? I think?”

As I should have expected, no one answers me.

I scroll down, hopeful for something more, when I see a video from Mark. I immediately focus and…

I’m there. I’m in Mark’s studio. I let out a shrill noise of surprise and excitement and realize when Mark doesn’t look away that somehow I can’t interact with him like I could with the kittens. I pull my phone out and check the kitten video again and groan softly. “Livestream. That’s why. He posted this hours ago.”

“-so incredibly sick, guys,” Mark is saying in front of me, attention completely focused on the camera he’s speaking into. “I’m probably going to go fall over as soon as I get this posted. I promise that I’m okay, though. I’m taking care of myself and I’ll be back to posting videos as soon as I can. So that being said… I will see you in the next video.” He sounds exhausted as he waves at the camera. “Buh-bye.”

I stay close to the wall, watching him shut off the camera and upload the footage. He’s coughing and shivering faintly as he goes through the process, and I realize that somehow I’m still in the moment despite the video being over. Outside the door, I hear a whine, and I realize it’s Chica.

“Just a minute, Chica-beeka,” he calls, before coughing again. “Youtube’s just being slow right now.” As he’s looking away, I watch with horror as the screen starts to flash red, just as my computer had before Darkiplier manifested in my room. I reach out to try and grab Mark’s arm, hoping I can get his attention, but the alter ego is already there and leering down at Mark. “Holy shit-!”

“Hello Mark.” Darkiplier is glaring at me, but redirects his gaze at Mark as he starts to look curiously my way. “Sorry to see you feeling so poorly.”

“No kidding, especially since you’re just a figment of my imagination.” Mark turns towards the door, with another round of coughing. “This is what I get for listening to Ethan and using expired cough syrup-”

Darkiplier moves impossibly fast across the floor, and he has a hand on Mark’s head before he can even react to the persona being in front of him. Mark starts to crumple to the floor as Darkiplier fades from view, but at the same time Mark starts to stand back up… except it’s not Mark. It looks like him, and will likely sound like him, but there’s a sick feeling in my gut that tells me that somehow Darkiplier is wearing Mark like a Halloween costume. He turns and looks at me with the angriest smirk, and I realize that I’m right.

“I allowed you this,” he hisses, and suddenly he’s right there, inches from me. This is not at all what I had in mind when I had allowed myself to daydream of an encounter with the world-famous Markiplier. “You may have figured out the trick to get in, and you saw me take him. But the real him isn’t here any longer.”

“I got this far,” I reply, voice shaking, and he just grins at me.

“And yet I wonder how much farther you can get yourself.” He grabs my chin. “Insolent whelp. I should have let Anti just consume you on the spot.”

“And leave you wanting?” I snap back in sarcasm before I can stop myself, and his grip tightens so rapidly and hard that I let out a cry of pain.

“I can and will end you when the time is right,” he growls through his teeth. “But for now, you’ve outstayed your welcome.” He takes a breath, and grins, and then he’s speaking in Mark’s usual voice. “Buh-bye!”

And with that cheery send-off, he shoves me backwards, and I end up falling on my ass again and landing once again in the void. I’m immediately on my feet, though- and on top of that, I’m livid.

“He didn’t deserve that-!” I shout into the emptiness. “He was _sick_ , dammit! He was just trying to make sure people didn’t worry!” My fists tighten at my sides, and I force myself to relax. There’s still Jack to figure out, for one, and for two, I have to figure out how to find and free them.

And there’s also the matter of me getting out of this alive too.

_One thing at a time,_ I tell myself as I get my phone back out, looking for whatever Jack’s posted most recently. There’s a video from the tour… _Maybe that’s how Anti got him. Touring’s stressful, right? If Darkiplier could take over Mark because he was sick, maybe Anti could get Jack while he was tired or asleep or just run down. And Anti did say that Jack was fighting back more than Mark was…_ I make myself focus and jump into the next video. Maybe I could get lucky again and see just what happened with Jack.

Right from the start it’s so much harder to just stay in the video. Mark being sick meant he was just rambling into the camera for a couple minutes and then posting it without editing. Jack had used spare time to cut scenes together, to make it more polished, and I could feel myself growing tired from trying to keep up. I walk out on the stage with him as he makes his way out to the delight of the screaming crowd… and I spot Anti, hanging from the ceiling. He’s staring right at me, and I can occasionally see the gleam of the theater’s lights catching on his fangs. “Shit,” I whisper, and try to make my way off stage so I can still see Jack but be somewhat out of Anti’s line of sight. I start sucking my bottom lip again but the coppery taste makes me paranoid that the more feral-acting of the two evil personas will be able to catch my scent that way, so I press two fingers to my lip and peek out from behind the curtain.

Somehow the show is over, and I’ve lost sight of Jack. The edges of the world start going fuzzy, like there’s static in the peripherals of my vision, and I charge out to try and find him. The static continues in pulses, and there’s a faint buzzing that comes with it. I’m suddenly reminded of Assassin’s Creed and being forced out of the ancestor’s memories by acting in a way that would be out of character for them as I keep jogging around. I round a corner and skid to a stop at finding Anti with his hands around Jack’s neck. Jack’s eyes are bugged out and he’s grabbing at Anti’s arms, desperately trying to find some weak point to force his attacker to let go.

“Stop!” I shout, though what I plan to do to force this is beyond me. I’m so disoriented by the disconnect I’ve been experiencing that it’s almost a miracle I’m still standing.

“Hello, snack,” Anti replies, grinning maniacally at me. “Is this what you wanted to see? Dark told me you caught him with Mark so I thought I’d be fair and let you see how Jack went.” Jack’s eyes bulge a bit more as Anti tightens his grip, his claws digging in. “Shame, isn’t it? All that travel and work. You guessed perfectly right, by the by, so gold star for you.” He cackles, looking back at Jack. “And now, Sean, it’s my turn to lead the dance.”

Jack looks at me, expression desperate and frantic, but I can feel myself slipping out. “I’m sorry,” I manage to call. “I promise I’m going to help-!”

The words are barely out of my mouth before I black out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually don't post back to back chapters like this, but I was on a roll tonight I guess. I hope that if you're reading this, you're finding some enjoyment in it. Please feel free to leave a comment, I look forward to hearing what people have to say!
> 
> PS: I'm sorry Ethan for making you be the one who'd say it's okay to use expired cough syrup but that felt like something you would do..?


	3. Colorblinded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How much longer can you keep pushing yourself?

I have no idea what time it is, or how long I’ve been out, when I finally come to again. I’m once again in the blackness, alone. But as soon as I’m fully awake, I’m up and pacing.

Jack _saw_ me. I don’t know how, but he could. He was looking right at me when I yelled before fainting. I briefly wonder if I’m being too optimistic, if it was just him looking to try and see what Anti was hollering at while his persona was choking him out. But I have this sense of connection from the moment- something within me just _knows_ that he registered me as being there.

_Shit,_ I think, my eyes going wide. _Maybe that’s the reason why he’s fighting! He somehow saw me while Anti was setting up to take him, and he knows there’s help on the way!_ I stand there, letting this sink in, and try to ignore the icy cold voice of panic that’s asking what happens if I don’t end up saving the day.

“I don’t know what I can be capable of until I stop standing here and do it,” I say aloud, trying to motivate myself. I reach into my pocket, and…

My phone’s gone.

I check every single pocket I have. I even get on my knees and scramble around in the dark to try and feel around, to find it if it fell out of my hands or my pocket when I disconnected. After what must be a half hour of desperately clambering around the dark, I lay down on my side, curling into a ball, and scream out in panic and anger and fear. No phone means no way to focus on where I need to go. No phone means no clues.

No phone means I’m stuck in this void forever. Or until Darkiplier and Anti decide the game’s over and come to consume me.

With that thought in mind, tears start rolling down my face. I lay on my side, surrounded by blackness, and let myself sob. I cry and cry until I’m shaking and worn out, before I finally push myself up into a sitting position again.

“I have to do something,” I say out loud. “There’s gotta be something that I can do without the phone.”

_But what?!_ screams the panic within me. _You barely got anything useful from the two videos you did get into. How are you going to run those two down when you don’t even know where they’ll go next?_

“I don’t know,” I reply aloud. “But sitting here having a pity party isn’t the right answer.” I smile faintly. “Positive mental attitude, right?”

The panic doesn’t appear to have a comeback for that. I close my eyes and think as hard as I can. I need to figure out where Darkiplier and Anti would have trapped their creators. And on top of that, I need to figure out how to weaken those two so Mark and Jack can escape.

“What I need are weapons that can deal with beings from another world, like… like Ghostbusters stuff, or…” I open my eyes. “Or something in SCP Containment Breach.” I shudder. I’m not a fan of SCP Containment Breach. In my last video I’d uploaded to my Youtube channel, I played the newer version and I’d kept taking wrong turns and getting caught by SCP-173. I exhale loudly. I know my videos like I’d know my own face in a mirror. Editing them together into something you hope the rest of the Internet finds entertaining isn’t exactly the shortest, easiest process in the world. And as much as I didn’t want to physically go into a video that I didn’t have a guaranteed path out of… something in there could be useful.

I close my eyes again and focus on being in the starting room. Without my phone it takes a lot more effort, and I’m dazed by the time I’m finally dropped in. I take a minute to compose myself and look around. It’s surprisingly cold, and it smells sterile. For some reason I had expected something less… clinical. I start for the door directly in front of me and start moving through the corridors, looking for anything that I could pull out of the game. After about fifteen minutes of walking, I find the candy bowl (but didn’t take any out of paranoia since I’d already taken two in my gameplay video), the mannequin SCP that was following Mark around in his video, and the 3D glasses. After finding the gas mask, I decided that I had tempted fate enough and got myself back to a central area that I felt looked safe. “Okay,” I say aloud. “Back to the void, but with stuff in tow.”

I start focusing, but feel something get yanked away as I’m pulled back into the void. I open my eyes back up in the blackness I’ve come to find disconcertingly familiar and look at my hands. The only thing that made it through was the pair of 3D glasses.

“Oh fucking fuck-” I groan. “Like these will actually be useful.” I start to shove them in my pocket, but then on a whim I put them up to my eyes. As soon as I have, I let out a surprised shout. Somehow the 3D glasses reveal shapes in the darkness. I take them off and the pitch returns, hiding everything, but I want to quickly check myself- I read up on these things, after all. There’s no signs of injury, so I put them back on, hooking them around my ears so they’ll stay put. Once they’re in place, I start to slowly walk forward, stepping around the obstacles and picking my way through towards… something, I hope.

I keep walking and walking, and I realize as I start looking around that I’m walking between videos. I recognize the stills from the different ones I’ve watched before on Youtube. I slow down a little to take it all in, grinning a little. “I didn’t even need my phone,” I say aloud to no one. “I was here the whole time.”

I keep walking for a while, hoping to find something that will be of use, when I recognize the still for the Darkiplier versus Antisepticeye video Mark and Jack did a few years ago. I experimentally tap on it, and it starts playing without volume.

“Should have found some SCP headphones as well,” I say aloud, jokingly, and I’m about to walk away when I hear someone calling out behind me. It sounds muffled, like they’re yelling at me through a window. I turn around and jump.

The video is still playing, and Darkiplier is currently the one on screen, but what’s got my attention is the fact that Markiplier has appeared within Darkiplier’s form on the screen, slamming a fist on the screen and waving at me. I run over and immediately start worrying. He already looked awful in the video about being ill, but now he looks so much worse. “You can see me?” he immediately asks. “Hear me?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “Yeah, I can.”

“Oh God.” Mark rests his forehead against the screen for a moment. “Oh thank God. Okay. I’ve been jumping in between every video I’ve ever done with Darkiplier in it to try and find some way to communicate with someone. But how are you..?”

“Darkiplier and Antisepticeye both appeared in my room and then dragged me into this. They decided to make getting you two out a game that I had to play along with.”

“Well that’s bullshit.” I muffle a laugh at his tone and his facial expression, both of which are very clearly projecting how unimpressed he is. “So what have you found out?”

“I saw you get taken by Darkiplier, and Jack get taken by Anti-”

“Wait, Sean’s in this mess too?” He scowls at that, before coughing. “This just keeps getting worse.”

“Yeah And… I think they’re targeting the small Youtuber channels. The people who might have given up on the dream. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s why they both targeted me. They’re both talking about consuming people.”

His expression grows darker. “That just leaves the how. Both of them are just characters.”

“That’s what I said to Darkiplier. But he said there was enough belief in the two of them to make them real enough to act on this idea of theirs.”

He exhales raggedly, and I realize that Darkiplier’s form on the screen is getting more solid. “Right. Okay. So what’s the plan?”

“First things first, I think you need to let yourself take a break, because it looks like Dark’s figured out what you’re doing and is pushing back.” He glances past me and grimaces, and I continue. “Thanks to these, I can at least see where I’m going rather than just hoping I’m going to the right place by jumping into a video. I just need to figure out where you two actually are.”

“Okay-” Mark’s words turn to a startled grunt as he’s abruptly pulled backwards. “Fuck-! If you see Sean, tell him to be careful!”

“Speak for yourself-!” I call as he disappears into the video, which abruptly goes black. I watch it for a moment before tapping on it again. Nothing. “Couldn’t be that lucky, I guess,” I grumble before continuing to walk on.

_What are they both known for?_ I think as I keep walking, folding my arms over my chest. And then I stop.

Duh.

Mark and Five Nights at Freddy’s.

“I’m gonna get stuffed in a Fazbear suit,” I groan, but start jogging as I look through the videos on either side of me for a FNAF video to jump into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a kudo or a comment and let me know if you're liking this! I may try and get another chapter up this evening!


	4. Spring goes the Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Grab a slice, enjoy your time here!

A little while later finds me wandering the hallways of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, pressed against a wall and hoping I don’t get caught. There was no one in the office, which struck me as sort of odd, but then I realized I had assumed that Mark would be sitting in there. _Probably in that silly guard costume from the FNAF musical to boot,_ my brain adds, and I actually grin to myself. Mostly out of fondness for the musical... but also because all those weapons would be really, really reassuring right about now. I keep creeping along, holding my breath as I hear heavy footfalls in the room ahead. _Maybe I should have grabbed the music box…_ I think briefly, before berating myself: I wouldn’t hear the puppet like that!

The footfalls head away and I duck out of my hiding spot to slide under a table. I then crawl from there towards Pirate’s Cove, ignoring the anxious knot in my stomach. My plan right now is to check Foxy’s stage first, before going towards the spare parts room if I didn’t find anything in there. However, I have some concerns: primarily, I don’t know which FNAF game I’m in. So I’m not completely sure what to expect. All I can do is keep moving over this nasty linoleum floor, and hope for the best.

I get into Pirate’s Cove and start looking around. There’s no sign of anyone or anything in here. I even peer behind the ragged curtain, but there’s nothing. So instead I sneak over to the repair office, where there’s… still nothing. I do find a rather hefty rubber hammer that I pick up for a weapon. Lugging this, I walk out to try and sneak through the dining room… only to hear the distinctive notes of Freddy’s music start up.

“Oh fuck me running,” I whisper, turning. It’s not just any of the Freddy automatons. It’s Golden Freddy, staring back at me, only a few feet away. “Um. Hi?”

It answers back with a discordant screech, sounding as though it’s somehow destroyed its own speakers in the process. I take off at a sprint, and hear it thudding steadily after me. I try to figure out the best way to get back to the office without potentially running into anyone else while on the move, but I take a wrong move and end up in a hallway that’s barricaded by Springtrap.

“Oh no. Oh, no, no, no.” I take a step back but there’s Golden Freddy behind me too. I raise the mallet nervously and wait, but neither of them reacts at that. I hold my breath and wait, and realize I can hear someone else breathing. I look up at the two automatons, first at Springtrap and then at Golden Freddy, and watch as Golden Freddy actually powers down in front of me. I turn to look at Springtrap and scream as I realize he’s reaching for me, and swing the mallet at his face. His lower jaw clatters away to the floor, and there’s a grunt of pain, so I raise it again.

“Fuck’s sake, don’t!” I look up and there’s human eyes, peering out from under the upper jaw of the Springtrap head now. “If he’s not going to kill me then I’d rather you didn’t.”

I sputter. “Jack-?”

“Yes, now get me out of this damned thing. I’ve probably already got nine different kinds of tetanus.”

I start trying to figure out how to get the head off as I reply. “I came here looking for Mark.”

“Which is what Anti and Dark were banking on, most like. Though Anti’s getting sloppy because he’s nearly ravenous.” He looks at me once the Springtrap head is lifted off and immediately his expression turns startled. “-I saw you-!”

“Yeah, when Anti caught you. I know. I didn’t think you could see me, though.”

“Yeah, dunno why I could myself. I’m guessing it’s because Anti was choking me out. Seeing all truth before death or something.”

“That’s rather poetic of you,” I say, and he grins.

“Thanks!”

We keep working to get him out of the Springtrap suit, silent for a long moment. I’m torn between excitement and worry: excitement because I’d found Jack… worry because I didn’t have any idea how to locate Mark now.

“So where to now?” he asks as he finally is completely free of the suit, shaking his arms and legs out and bouncing in place slightly. It reminds me of watching an athlete warm up on the sidelines when coming off the bench.

“I honestly don’t know. I’d made my bet on him being here, not you. So then where would he be that I should have thought as the spot to look for you?”

Jack looks thoughtful for a moment. “I know it’s in both our histories but I think I’m a little better known for it.”

I blink. “...you mean Happy Wheels?”

“Yes.”

“...Mark’s gonna be _so_ pissed.”

He laughs. “He can be pissed once this is all over. Now, how do we get out of here?”

“I think you’re going to need to hang onto me and hope for the best.”

“You aren’t making me feel very optimistic.”

I shrug as he snakes his arms around my shoulders. “I’m doing the best I can with what I was given. -Or rather what I took from other games.”

“So the ‘David Tennant’s Doctor’ 3D shades look isn’t your usual aesthetic?”

I roll my eyes. “Just hang on and let me focus, okay?” I close my eyes as he falls quiet, and I visualize the hall of videos where I had been previously, making sure to picture Jack with me as well. There’s a lot more effort to this jump than the previous ones, and I fall to my hands and knees almost as soon as we’re through. “ _Shit_ -!”

“You all right?” Jack’s kneeling next to me almost immediately, thank God. I had almost thought that I hadn’t made it work.

“Yeah… just… that took a lot.” It takes longer to catch my breath, and Jack stays next to me on the ground the entire time until I’m feeling calmer. “The real trick is going to be after this next part, when we have to figure out how to get all of us out.”

“We’ll cross that particular bridge when we come to it,” he says as he pulls me to my feet. “We’ve got to find whichever Happy Wheels they tossed Mark into.”

“I don’t know that it’ll matter that much,” I say as he starts off. “I picked the first Five Nights I found along here.”

“Maybe then you ought to be in the lead.” He slows down and I pass him. We walk in quiet for some time, looking back and forth between the videos that make the walls of the hallway. “Heh.” I look over my shoulder at him and he points. “Pity Mark won’t be in Boat Dog.”

I laugh aloud at that. “Yeah, that’d be easy. Navigate past the fearsome Chica on her pool toy to rescue him.”

“More like drag him away from her,” Jack responds with a chuckle, and he grins as I laugh again.

After a few more minutes, we’re finally standing in front of Happy Wheels 100. I look at Jack. “...I wonder if you should come in with me. This could be a trap, after all.”

“I probably should. They have to have noticed by now that I’ve gotten out of Five Nights. And I’d rather be trapped in there with you and Mark, then out here on my own.”

“Good point.” He grabs my arm and I focus on getting us into Happy Wheels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope no one was expecting Mark to actually be there... I liked the twist idea too much.  
> Please let me know what you think!


	5. Sidestep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Jack in tow, it's time to figure out where Mark actually is.  
> Warning: this chapter does contain some descriptions of violence.

Happy Wheels is somehow as chaotic, noisy and ugly inside of it as it is to watch. Within seconds of us landing, Jack is dragging me off my feet to avoid getting hit by a bike and the spears being thrown after it. “Where are we even going?!” I shout over a chainsaw wielding Santa Claus that’s now trying to catch up to us.

“The finish line!” He’s grinning, despite everything around us. “We’re safe there, we can regroup! Get ready to jump!”

“ _Why are we jumping-_ ”

“JUMP!”

In spite of my protests, I do as he tells me and jump, letting out a terrified shriek as we plummet past two walls of swords. On the bottom, a concrete floor with the word “FINISH” painted on it is all that awaits. “Jack-” I yell, trying to figure out how we’re to survive this without multiple broken bones.

“Don’t worry! I have an idea!”

I scream his name again, horrified, as he lets go of my hand. Before my eyes he does a neat back flip and somehow slows himself to a gentle floating speed. He grabs my hands as I continue to plummet past. “How the everloving _fuck_ -”

“We’re characters in the game now, yeah? So why not act like it?” His feet touch down and there’s a blare of noise and colors as the game acknowledges the course is completed. “It’s either that or shattered legs.”

“I don’t remember there being a flip and float move in this game,” I say while trying to not continue to freak out.

“Hey, it worked, right?”

“Suppose so.” I walk to the edge of the platform, looking over the edge into the blackness below. “...I almost miss Five Nights.”

“Yeah. At least there I didn’t have to worry about heights.”

“You just-” I sigh rather than continuing that thought. “All right. Focus. Where do we find Mark.”

Jack looks thoughtful. “I’d say my first guess is the ball throw.” He closes his eyes and somehow we’re there, after which he opens his eyes. “Ah, but it’s good to be back in my element.”

“Warn me when you’re going to pull shit like that,” I say, looking around. There’s the boxes with the scores on the sides, a couple of the NPCs standing around waiting to either give or receive punishments… and a huge, milky-colored orb overhead. “Jack.” After I have his attention, I point up at the orb.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that before,” he replies quietly after a moment.

“You did say something about a trap,” I answer, and he shrugs with a sheepish grin. He picks up one of the balls for the game and throws it as hard as he can at the orb. There’s a crystalline tinkling sound, and a crack appears in the orb. I follow suite and in short order we’re out of balls, having caused a huge web of cracks at the base of the orb. Something dark inside is now visible. “Well now what?”

“Dunno just yet.” He glances at the empty balls, and then at me. “Any ideas?”

I start to suck my bottom lip again but stop when the raw spot pulses with new pain. “Dunno just yet. Maybe…” My voice trails off as I decide to try something. I focus as I have been when traveling into the videos, but this time I picture myself going into the orb. Jack lets out a surprised shout, but it’s far away when I open my eyes. I step gingerly around the cracks and wince as each one crunches, breaking open that much more, heading for the dark mass on the floor. There’s a soft groan as the mass moves, and I catch my breath before speaking. “Mark..?”

And that’s when the orb explodes around me. There’s a moment of weightlessness, a sort of Warner-Brothers-y, the coyote running in mid-air after sprinting off the cliff again fragment of time, where I can look around. The black mass is levitating in the air just above me now, and has revealed itself to be Darkiplier. He laughs mockingly at me as the weightlessness ends and I start to fall to the ground.

“Did you really think that it would be that _simple_ -?!” He has huge, black wings unfolded around him now, looking a lot like the same darkness that my room had become at the start of this craziness. He’s also looking less pale and drawn as he swoops down towards me, grinning maniacally. “Anti may have been too lazy to properly hide him,” he continues as he grabs me out of the air, gesturing past my shoulder at Jack, “but you’ll never, _ever_ get Mark back. He’s made me quite full and healthy, as I’m sure you can see.”

_We’re too fucking late,_ I immediately think, but I try to swallow my panic. “He can’t be all gone. If he was all gone, you wouldn’t bother trying to stop me any more-!”

“I can smell your fear, little one. You can spit all the brave words you like, but you already know that I have this in the bag.” He puts a hand around my throat and tightens it immediately, and I let out a choking gasp. He lowers his voice to a whisper. “I know that you spoke to him. You had the unmitigated gall to give him _hope_. He did try to fight back at the end, but where he was already ill…”

“No.” How I manage to say anything is beyond me, but I’m forcing words out. “You’re a liar, Dark-” He tightens his thumb against my trachea and everything catches there.

“I will not be called names by a mortal worm,” he hisses, his mouth close enough to my face for me to feel the hot air on my cheek and ear. “And because you’ve upset me so, I am going to teach you what suffering truly is.”

I turn my head, trying to get my neck away from his thumb, and feel something scrape down my neck. It’s deep enough to even draw blood, as I feel it start to trickle down my neck. “Stop,” I manage to mumble again. “You don’t want to do this…”

He chuckles darkly. “And what makes you say that..?”

I close my eyes and focus… and picture slamming him into the platform beneath us, under my feet. The now familiar slipping feeling happens and Darkiplier lets out a scream of rage as I land on top of him. There’s a snapping noise, and I desperately hope that whatever injuries Darkiplier gets don’t transfer to Mark. He throws me off her chest with a primal sounding roar and he gets to his feet, clutching his left side. “You little shit.”

I stagger away, still trying to catch my breath, and there’s a hand on my arm. Jack’s moved between me and Darkiplier, his expression resolute. “That’s enough out of you, Dark,” he spits. “The game’s over. Give Mark back.”

“Not on your lives,” Darkiplier growls. “And certainly not on his. He created me. Gave me power and influence! It’s only right that he pays his debt to me.”

“You don’t get to make that choice for him.”

Darkiplier stands upright, fidgeting briefly with how he’s holding his shoulders before he replies. “And you do..? Or do you pretend to have proxy because you’re in such a similar situation?” He tilts his chin down and smirks, before switching to Mark’s voice. “Is that it, Sean?”

Now it’s my turn to grab Jack’s arm as he moves to throw a punch. “Stop-!”

“Says the person who broke one of Mark’s ribs.” Darkiplier’s still using Mark’s voice as he taunts us. “But oh, the big ol’ goof will just laugh it off! Nobody worry about abusing or hurting Mark, he doesn’t mind! He _never_ minds! He’ll just bounce right back! All he wants is to just love and care about everybody like an idiot.”

I grit my teeth and grab Jack’s arm with both hands. “Get ready.”

“What are you doing?” He looks at my hands, and then at me.

“He’s not here. Not the part of him that matters. We’re bodysliding.”

“What if you’re wrong?!”

“We have to take the chance.” I try to sound confident, but I’m failing. “Darkiplier’s just baiting us now. He’s only got Mark’s physical form, and he’s just trying to make us waste time until his spirit gives up.”

Jack looks like he may protest, but he nods. “Go.”

A moment later we’re back in the hallway of videos. I sit down immediately and bury my face in my hands, shaking faintly. Jack starts pacing back and forth off to one side. After a long moment, I speak up, my voice thick from the tears I’m trying to hold back. “I don’t know what else to do at this point.”

“I’ll tell you what we’re not doing.” Jack squats in front of me, looking as worried as I feel. “We aren’t giving up. You got lucky because Anti fucked up. Plain and simple. But you’re not dumb enough to think that Darkiplier’s really gotten you.” He stands up, looking around. “If he’s got Mark that worn down, despite everything, he has to have him locked into something that really reminds him of an awful time. At least, that’d be my guess from knowing Mark.”

I look around at the walls. All the video preview screens are solid black immediately within sight, and I wrack my memories to try and bring up anything at all that seems like it’d be relevant. After a few minutes, I sit up a little. “...I think I know.”

“Yeah?” Jack looks at me.

“The hospitalization videos. I’ve only ever heard of them. I’ve never watched them. I’m… I’m kind of terrified of hospitals.”

He grins faintly at me, reaching a hand down to help me stand. “Makes you feel any better, I don’t care much for them either. But I think you’re on the right track there.” He looks down the row. “Now we just have to find it.”

“...this would be so much easier if I hadn’t lost my phone.”

Jack blinks, and reaches into his pocket, pulling my cell phone out. I let out a pleased cry and reach for it as he replies. “It was on the floor of the theater after you disappeared. I think Anti took it as a trophy but with him being so hungry…” He taps his temple with another grin.

“I’m glad for his mistake, honestly.” I get the Youtube app pulled up and find the video. “All right. Here we go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story's coming pretty quickly for me! I hope everyone's enjoying it. Thanks for reading if you've been keeping up with it.


	6. Fighting Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Are you finding Mark?  
> Can you even find him?  
> Or are you just a failure?

Once again I’m in a sterile smelling environment, though it’s unnaturally cold for a hospital. Jack shudders next to me as well. “Can’t tell if I’m just cold or if I have the heebie-jeebies,” he comments, looking around. “I know American healthcare is awful but seriously, they can’t turn up the heat?”

“That may be part of Darkiplier’s plan, keeping Mark uncomfortable. If he’s spending all his energy on how gross he’s feeling, he’s not able to fight back, right?”

“Yeah. Suppose you’re right, there.” We both watch as a nurse slides past the closed curtain in front of us, heading by us to the door without appearing to register us standing in the room. “...so now what?”

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to go around that. As much as I don’t want to do that.”

“Why’s that?”

“I was in a bad car accident when I was a kid. Like touch and go, my parents started making funeral arrangements, that level of bad.”

“Shit, dude.” His eyes go wide.

“There’s like, months in my memory that are just me staring at the opposite wall of a hospital room,” I continue after taking a minute to calm down. “Just hoping for _something_ to be different or interesting that day, rather than just the same line of doctors and nurses coming in to see me. After that… I’ve tried to make it a point to avoid them.”

“I can’t blame you. Hell, I would too.”

After a long moment of both of us being silent, I speak up again. “But I gotta do this.”

Jack pats my back with a reassuring smile, and I step forward to the curtain. I push it aside and immediately my stomach tightens with anxiety. Mark looks awful. His eyes are shut and he’s hooked up to at least a dozen different tubes or IVs or wires. I reach out and very gently poke his arm, with no response. Jack steps over and tries clapping over Mark’s face, still without any success. “...well then how the fuck..?” he mumbles with a frown.

“Dunno just yet,” I answer him, quietly, as though I want Mark to not wake up. I then check for the 3D glasses, since they’d helped me spot Mark previously. They’re no longer on my face. “Oh no-” I turn towards Jack, and he’s holding them out. “Oh my God, you just saved me a panic attack.”

He just grins. “They fell off when you sent yourself up into the orb. I figured I ought to grab them for safekeeping.”

“I’m glad you did, honestly.” I take them from him and put them back on, before looking at the bed and jumping backwards. “Fucking shit-!”

“What?!” Jack jumps as well, mostly due to my reaction.

“I- he’s _in_ himself. I don’t know how else to explain it!” I look back at the bed. Underneath the Mark we had been seeing, the one who appeared to be completely unconscious, there was another Mark. That one was definitely wide awake, as his eyes were open wide with fear and anxiety. I take off the 3D glasses and pass them to Jack, who puts them out. “You see him too, right?”

“Holy shit I do. Holy fuck.” He takes the glasses back off and looks at me. “How… how are we getting him out of this?”

I put the glasses back on. Mark’s staring at the both of us, but other than that he hasn’t moved anything other than what the body he’s trapped in has. “...I wonder if we can yank him free.”

“Dude, going off his face, it’s at least worth trying so he’s not stuck like that.”

I nod and clamber up onto the hospital bed, feet on either side of Mark’s body, and then take one of Mark’s hands in both of mine, making sure to wrap his fingers around my palm. Almost as soon as it’s moved out of the position it had been in on his stomach, there’s a flood of warmth and the sensation of the fingers tightening around mine- even though the hand I’m holding is still limp and cool to the touch. “Jack? Grab me and get ready to pull. I don’t think this is going to be super easy.”

“Got it.” He climbs up behind me and wraps his arms around my torso. “Ready when you are.”

“On three. One. Two. Three!” I go to pull as hard as I can on Mark’s hand, and Jack immediately leans backwards to give me extra leverage. After a long moment like this, something seems to give, and abruptly Mark comes flying forward into an upright sitting position with a yell. The motion happens so quickly that Jack slips backwards and lands on the floor with a grunt, and I end up on my ass on the end of the bed, thankfully missing Mark’s feet.

“Am I glad to see you two,” Mark immediately says, “and your Doctor Who glasses.”

“Dude! I said the same thing-!” Jack replies with a huge grin.

“Guys! Matter at hand? Mark’s still balls deep in his own comatose self?!” The phrase makes all three of us immediately pull a face.

“...can we just like. All swear to never utter that ever again?” Mark asks after a moment.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Jack grins. “According to the Septiplier shippers, that’s my job.”

“I’m gonna roll my eyes clean outta my head if you two don’t stop,” I say as scoldingly as I can. “Jack, get back up here. Let’s get this done!”

“You got it, boss,” he responds as he climbs back up onto the bed. I grab both of Mark’s hands at the wrists, Jack grabs around my torso again, and we start to pull once more. After a couple minutes, he’s free of the body and we get him sitting on the end of the bed. I notice that he’s holding the same spot on his left side that Darkiplier was after I landed on him and hope he doesn’t know I caused him that pain.

“That was absolutely the scariest thing ever,” he says while catching his breath.

“You haven’t seen this one swinging a mallet at you yet,” Jack retorts while tilting his head towards me.

“In my defense,” I shoot back, “I didn’t know you were stuck in that Springtrap suit.”

“Anti stuck you at Freddy’s?” Mark looks at Jack, who nods, and his face splits into one of his trademark grins. “Well that was stupid of him.”

“Right?” Jack chuckles. “But no one ever said my evil side was the clever one.”

I stand off to the side, smiling in spite of myself as the two chatter back and forth for a few more minutes. After everything that’s happened in this madness, this is refreshingly normal to watch… even if it is me within arm’s reach of two of my favorite Youtubers, in a cursed hospital room video, with two overpowered alter egos out to kill all of us. When they hit a lull, I speak up again. “So what’s our plan?”

Both of them blink at me, and Mark’s the first to reply. “I hadn’t really put one together, since I didn’t even know if I was getting out of that.” He gestures behind himself at the copy of himself in the bed. “Dark was very specific about that being the final punishment after he’d caught me talking to you.”

“I think what concerns me most is that we _haven’t_ seen Anti. Like. At all,” Jack says. “Darkiplier outright attacked us back in Happy Wheels, but I haven’t seen Anti since he caught me.”

“Me either,” I say when they both look at me. “But he was griping about being hungry the whole time, so… maybe he targeted someone else while Darkiplier’s been the one to babysit me?”

Jack’s expression darkens, looking worried. “I’d rather not hope that he’s gone to consume someone else…”

“We have to hope then that he didn’t,” Mark replies, putting a hand on Jack’s arm briefly. He then goes to stand up, and Jack grabs him as he staggers a little. “I didn’t realize how much energy Dark took from me,” he continues, looking sheepish.

“Which probably wasn’t helped by you being so sick.” I frown. “We need to get this wrapped up so you can get home and rest.”

“Preaching to the converted here,” he grumbles. “But how do we even get out of here?”

“Just hang onto both of us,” Jack says as he wraps one arm around Mark’s, and his other around mine. Mark shrugs and copies him, and I focus on pulling all three of us out of the video and back into the hallway. As we do, there’s a horrible scream of rage, and when we land in the hallway the videos around us shatter into shards of jet-black crystal. The razor sharp fragments rain down on us, scratching all three of us up, and the floor starts shaking. I’m already feeling shaky from the strain of now pulling three people out of the video so I immediately fall, and Mark isn’t far behind. Jack manages to keep to his feet but barely. “What the fuck’s this, then?” he shouts.

“I am tired of being patient!” a voice screams back at him, and Anti materializes in front of us. I realize from him having both of his eyes that he’s currently in Jack’s body. “I have been hungry for too fucking long, and I am not going to wait any longer.”

“We’re fucked,” I whisper, sitting on the ground and staring at the persona in front of us, and then Mark grabs my shoulder.

“Not today,” he says softly, and goes to get himself up. I scramble to my feet as well while he’s looking at Jack. “How do we do this?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I mean. We’ve got powers if we try to access them.”

Mark gives him a quizzical look that would be amusing if it weren’t for the situation. “Explain?”

“Well, boss there can teleport, as you’ve already seen. I can fly. I guess just try what feels right?”

Mark looks thoughtful for a moment, as Anti starts charging at us. Jack immediately leaps into the air, hovering over Anti’s head, as I grab Mark’s arm and teleport us behind Anti. Anti skids to a halt with another scream of rage. “There’s no way that any of you are escaping me,” he snarls. “I will hunt, and I will kill… and I will _feast_.”

“Only if you catch us, dumb ass,” Jack retorts, lowering himself enough to slap the back of Anti’s head, and he takes off flying as Anti goes tearing after him.

“Well… that bought some time.” I look at Mark. “Ideas?”

He shrugs. “Other than stuff the fans have… given me for powers, I guess?”

“...you mean like the Avatar fanart thing from a couple years ago? Or Tiny Box Tim?”

“Only if Tiny Box Tim comes with a giant cannon somehow smushed into him.” He sounds so dejected.

“Look,” I say, trying to sound optimistic. “I didn’t think of what I was doing with the teleporting as anything special until Jack pointed it out. And I know you’re sick and hurting and exhausted. I’ll stay close, and make sure you stay out of Anti’s way. You just focus on figuring out what you’re capable of.”

He gives me a long look before smiling and nodding. “You got it, boss.”

“I wish you two would stop calling me that,” I groan. “My name is-”

We’re interrupted by Anti batting Jack out of the air, sending him tumbling past us. “Sean!” Mark shouts, running after Jack. I turn and look at Anti, who’s leering down at me. I close my eyes to try and focus enough to teleport, but Anti grabs me by the arm and jerks me upward. He licks his lips, and stares at me hard.

“I am not going to waste any more time with you,” he growls, as he opens his mouth unnaturally wide, revealing all his fanged teeth to me. I scream in horror and try to squirm free, but one sharp jerk of his wrist makes my shoulder let out a short pop followed by a blinding flash of pain- and I realize it’s now dislocated, and any movement is going to only make it hurt that much worse. He moves me closer, and I realize he’s aiming to rip my throat out. 

_It was fun while it lasted,_ is the only thing I can think of as his breath washes over my neck. I close my eyes and try to disassociate- but then there’s a rush of heat past my legs, an acrid burning smell, and Anti squealing in pain and fury. I’m dropped unceremoniously to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and I open my eyes again.

Mark’s standing behind me with one fist extended, thin trails of smoke still rising from his arm and hand, glaring past me at Anti. There’s hands under my arms and I moan in pain as Jack drags me out of Anti’s reach. “You all right?” he asks me, though he’s wincing as he does- Anti inhabiting his body means that Mark’s fireballs are hurting him as well.

“My shoulder’s dislocated,” I mumble. “Needs- it needs to get pushed back in.”

“Uh… I’ve only ever seen this done in the movies. I don’t know that you want me doing it.”

“Jack, just do it. It’s not going to do it on its own.”

He grimaces. “Sorry in advance-” And he shoves on my shoulder hard, and I let out a cry as the bone returns into the socket. “Sorry, sorry-!”

“It’s fine,” I tell him as I get myself sitting up, watching Mark take on Anti. He’s sending fireball after fireball at Anti, who’s snarling and hissing as he tries to evade. Jack’s trying to faintly disguise his pained noises when the fire hits its mark. “I guess he took my suggestion.”

“As long as he feels like he can do something, he’s gonna do it,” Jack replies as he helps me to my feet. “But we still have to figure out how to stop Anti.”

“Well, how’s he usually shut up? Beyond eating someone’s soul, I mean.”

“I mean. He usually only comes out when violence can be done, based off… what I’ve made up for him.” Jack shrugs. “So really it would be like something innocent or harmless, or quiet...”

I grin after a thought occurs to me. “I think I have an idea.”

“Which is?”

“Don’t worry about what I’m doing. Right now I just need you to fly me over him so I can teleport him.”

He gives me such a look. “Are you mad?”

“Probably. Alice in Wonderland says that all the best people are.”

He shakes his head, gets himself levitating, and grabs my hands. A minute later we’re over Anti. “Are you a hundred percent sure that you want to do this?!”

“Yeah! Drop me!”

“Okay!” He lets go, and I reach down, grabbing a fistful of Anti’s hair while focusing as hard as I can on our goal: an ASMR video I’ve watched a couple of times, where the person filming is doing nothing more than writing with an old-fashioned fountain pen. Anti lets out a shriek as we teleport, and the whole time that I’m transporting him I can feel him fighting me. As soon as we emerge into the video, I let go of him and don’t even hesitate before I teleport myself back to where Jack and Mark are. I land between them and nearly collapse, but I’m grinning. Jack looks down at me. “You are _completely_ insane.”

“I’ll own it,” I say as I get to my feet. “Now we just need to take Dark down.”

“You make it sound like it’ll be easy,” Mark says.

“Knowing him, I think it’s only going to be as hard as we make it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I logged in to kudos and a bookmark! I'm so excited guys you DON'T EVEN KNOW.  
> This chapter is crazy long (six pages in google docs!) but I really felt like I couldn't break it up in the middle of everything.  
> I hope everyone enjoys!


	7. Breaking Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Do you believe that you can walk on water?  
> Do you believe that you can win this fight tonight?"  
> -Thirty Seconds to Mars, "Walk on Water"

The shards of the exploded videos crunch under our feet as we walk the hallway, trying to figure out what to do next. Anti hasn’t reappeared, so the ASMR video idea seems to have worked for now.

“I hope he’s getting all the tingles,” Mark says out of the blue, after about five minutes after I’d explained where I’d taken Anti. “I hope he’s so freaking tingled that he can’t even function.”

“The more you say ‘tingle’, the dirtier it sounds,” Jack complains. “And that’s my evil alter ego you’re talking about, so I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Tingle,” Mark sing-songs in response. “Tingly tingling tingles!”

“Dude, stop-”

“Tingles,” he continues, still singing but now in the deepest tone he can manage.

“You two are actually five years old, combined,” I say over the singing.

“He started it!”

“Case in point.” I shake my head as Mark sings “tingles” one final time in the most over dramatic fashion he can manage before he starts coughing. “Are you done?”

“Yeah,” he says between coughs. “I’m good.”

“Good.” We’re all quiet for a moment before I speak again. “So how do we stop Darkiplier, anyways?”

“Yeah. That’s what’s scaring me right now.” Jack looks at Mark. “Anti’s pretty fucking basic compared to Dark, after all.”

“I wouldn’t call it basic,” Mark replies. “Anti’s more feral and reactionary. He wants something, he goes to hunt it down, he’s fine until he wants something else. Right?”

“In a way, yeah. Most of the time all he’s wanting is trouble and chaos, though.”

“But it’s still not a long-term plan.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“ _That’s_ what’s scary about Dark,” Mark continues. “He’s a planner. He’s old, older than any of us. He’s seen a lot of the world, of human nature. He thinks he knows exactly how we tick and how to manipulate us. And what he wants more than anything is to find the most powerful host he can, someone who holds sway over a lot of people, in order for him to be completely in control of everything.”

Jack and I are both quiet for a long moment, taking this in. I finally speak up again. “How does he snap, though? Everything has a breaking point.”

Mark looks thoughtful before he replies. “I’d have to guess, but… probably when someone doesn’t give in to him immediately. Sure, he likes the chase, but if he really, _really_ wants to add someone to his collection and they don’t jump right on board? He gets frustrated.”

Jack looks at me. “His ass must be chapped right raw about you, then.”

“I’d really rather not be the target of that kind of anger.”

“Oh come on, you survived it once. And laid some hurt on him to boot! A broken rib isn’t something you just bounce back from!”

I wince at that. “Yeah…”

“Is that why my left side hurts so bad..?” Mark looks at me, and I want to curl up and die at him putting everything together.

“...yeah.” I look at the ground, feeling myself blush and hating myself for it.

“Hey.” I’m stopped by a hand on my shoulder, and I look up to Mark looking squarely at me. “I’m gonna make a couple of guesses here. You didn’t know that it would hurt me, you didn’t do it on purpose to hurt me, and furthermore you had to do it to protect yourself. Am I right?”

“Well, yeah, but-”

“No buts. I’ll be okay.” He grins. “Just had a bad fall in the studio after over-exerting myself with this bug I’ve got. I’ll just tell the crew we’re pushing back the next impossible let’s play. Okay?” When I don’t immediately respond, he starts poking me in the ribs and using one of his goofy voices. “Okay? I said okay! Is it okay, boss?”

“Jeez, yes, it’s okay!” I say, laughing in spite of myself. “You really don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“Sort of pride myself on it, actually.” He looks down at himself and frowns. “Though I wish I was wearing something a little bit slicker to take Dark on.”

Jack snorts. “What, you don’t think red gym shorts and the oldest black tee shirt you own will cut it?”

“Hey, mine’s not much better.”

Mark looks down at my outfit and beams. “Hey, the pjorts!”

“The _what_?” Jack immediately gives Mark such a look. “Did you just have a stroke or something?”

“They’re pajama shorts! PJ, shorts! Pjorts!”

“I still think you’re having a stroke.”

“It was a charity livestream thing,” I explain, since Mark’s not exactly getting there on his own.

“There. See? Was that so hard?”

“Pjorts is just _efficient_.”

“You’re such an engineer sometimes.”

“Well it is what I went to college for.”

Jack rolls his eyes. “Mother of God, man.”

“We were able to give ourselves powers,” I say with a shrug. “Maybe we can change what we’re wearing?”

Jack stops walking for a moment, looking very intently at a spot on the floor until one eye starts to twitch. “...I don’t think we can.”

“Probably because Dark and Anti have our bodies,” Mark says in response. “What about you?”

I try, but without success. “I guess that’s just… not part of the game.”

“You probably would ruin the game and pick something tacky like power armor.” I glance at Mark, who shakes his head, just as we’re all blown off our feet. I turn to look over my shoulder, and Darkiplier is pounding the air with those giant black wings he had in Happy Wheels… and he looks fit to kill. I slowly get back to my feet, putting an arm up to try and keep the wind out of my eyes. “Mark. You’re looking much more awake than you did when I last saw you.”

“This ends here, Darkiplier,” Mark shoots back, scowling.

“Oh, that it does. But not the way that you want it to.” He looks over our heads as there’s a huge rumble from the ground. I glance back just in time to see Antisepticeye claw his way out of the ground. “Welcome back.”

“I call dibs on that one,” Anti snarls, pointing at me as he pulls himself free of the floor. “I want revenge for that hell I was put in-!”

“Whatever you want, Anti. The game is over, and I’ve had my fun.” Darkiplier throws a hand out, and red and blue lights start to surround Mark, who falls to his knees. On my other side, Jack has been surrounded by green ones, and Anti has his hand out as well, pointing at Jack.

I start to panic, looking back and forth between the two of them, and then an idea occurs to me. I slowly smile. “Oh. Your game is over?”

Darkiplier gives me a confused, condescending look. “Have you gone deaf? That’s what I just said.”

“Just wanted to be sure that you were giving up control here.” I take as deep a breath as I can. “Because that means it’s my turn to choose the game now.”

I watch as his eyes widen with realization, and everything slows to a halt. I stretch my arms out to the sides, feeling my feet leave the floor. I tip my head back and close my eyes slightly as the air suddenly starts to feel like a thunderstorm about to roll in around us all. Around my body I can feel a tightening.

Well, Darkiplier had mentioned power armor after all.

I settle back onto the floor, reaching behind me for the gun I know will be there. Darkiplier looks somewhere between enraged and horrified as time starts again. “You cheating little-”

“I wouldn’t call a fully kitted Spartan names, Darkiplier.” I level the gun on him. “Now both of you, let them go-”

I’m interrupted by Anti diving into my back, knocking me off balance and sending me rolling. My gun slides out of reach as he starts to try and tear my armor off with his talons. As I try to start throwing punches, Darkiplier lands behind us and aims a hand at me. Suddenly every single ounce of strength and confidence I thought I had melts away. I suddenly start thinking about how long I’ve been fighting against them- realistically, it had to have been hours at this point that I’ve been at this- and how badly I want to rest.

 _Get up! You have to try!_ I scream internally at myself, just as Anti’s talons catch my cheek, tearing it open. Even the deep scratches can’t seem to get me motivated to defend myself. I know deep down that this is Darkiplier’s doing, but my grand idea of turning the tables hadn’t gotten me anywhere.

Anti’s voice is suddenly in my head, his words preceded by that insane giggle of his. **Give up. Give in. They couldn’t save themselves. Why should you save them?**

_Never. Not on myself. Not on them. They may not know it, but they saved me. I owe them._

**You’ve already done so much. Too much, even. Rest. Control is hard. Impossible, even. Give it up.** This from Darkiplier, still trying so hard to sound reassuring and genuine.

 _I’m not falling for it._ I try to push myself up, just as Anti jumps on my chest, knocking me back down hard enough for me to crack my head against the floor so badly that I see stars.

Darkiplier’s voice continues in my mind. **Why are you doing this to yourself?**

 _Because I care too much._ I force my eyes open, looking up at Anti and his- wait. His one eye.

He gave up control of Jack’s body.

“Jack-!” I yell as best I can, turning my head. “You can get out now! Get back to your body while you can!”

Not without you two,” he immediately shouts back at me, as he gets to his feet. He runs over and bodily tackles Anti off of me, punching him in the jaw as they roll away. “Come on, get up!”

 **Not if I have anything to do with it.** Darkiplier is looking very, very angry, but at the same time I can see the flickering that I’ve always thought of as his “disconnect” from the videos. He’s also now on the ground, wings having vanished.

 _He’s losing his hold on this reality,_ I realize, trying to get myself up. _If we can get him to completely lose it, maybe we’ve still got a chance. If nothing else… it gets Mark his body back._ My arms and legs are shaking, and I feel faintly nauseous, but I get back to my feet. The power armor’s disappeared in the midst of the onslaught on my mind.

“ **You are never going to escape this world now. Even if I cannot keep my hold on him, I will make sure you pay for this mistake.** ” Darkiplier’s speaking aloud now, and advancing on me. The closer he draws to me, the more an ocean of white noise seems to be drowning out everything outside of the two of us.

 _It’s like being in Slender,_ I think in the haze. I can faintly hear Mark and Jack in the distance, shouting. I turn my head towards them, feeling woozy- and then there’s a cold, sharp pain in my ribs. I look down and there’s a knife in my side, a warm torrent of blood flowing out from around its blade. Behind me, Anti giggles before pulling it free, and Darkiplier smirks before stepping back. Suddenly I can feel _everything_ , and I fall to my knees, clamping my hand to my side desperately to try stopping the flow escaping from me. “No,” I mumble as the world tilts sideways. “No… not like this. Not this close.”

Darkiplier takes a knee in front of me, still wearing that insufferable smile. “Yes,” he replies, no longer using that huge voice- and no longer so healthy looking either, I realize. His pale, gaunt features have returned. _He must have given up occupying Mark’s body as well._ Not much that I can do with that thought at the moment, though. “Yes here, and now. This is _over_.” He backhands me and I fall onto my side, feeling my phone in my pocket as I roll onto my hip. The 3D glasses slip from my face and the world is nothing but pitch with outlines: red and blue flickering around Darkiplier in front of me, pink around Mark in the distance ( _pink, always freaking pink, it’s even pink here, you’ll never escape the pink thing will you_ ), green nearby. I assume that one’s Anti, as he’s slipped away from behind me.

My phone, though… I manage to get my hand slipped into my pocket and take it out. Youtube’s still on the screen. “I…” I gasp out as I go to my subscriptions. “I still say no.”

Jack’s most recent tour vlog is the first one I come across, and I pull it up. _I can do this,_ I tell myself as I crane my head to spot Jack. He’s once again attacking Anti, their two green outlines merging together. I raise my voice and call as clearly as I can, “Jack, over here!” _Look how far I made it without knowing what I was doing. Look at how far I came. Remember everyone who needs them back._ He’s staring right at me, and I point my phone’s screen at him.

“Hey, no- boss, _wait_ -” Almost immediately he’s gone, and Anti lets out an enraged scream.

“You fucked me over!” he howls at Darkiplier.

“I fail to see how that’s my fault,” Darkiplier retorts coldly. “You let down your guard.”

“ _You_ said we were ending this! That I’d get the kill!”

“The kill got you,” I respond to dirty looks from both of them as I start looking around for Mark. He’s actually charging over, looking upset and angry. I start to pull up the sick video again. _Please don’t let Darkiplier be there again. Please. Just get him home._ My vision blurs for a moment and once it clears Mark’s actually standing protectively over me. My arm wobbles relentlessly as I lift the phone up to point at him: I must have lost more blood than I thought from the stab. “Time to go,” I say as loudly as I can, and I realize my words are starting to slur.

“Not until I know you’re getting out too,” he says, his tone firm.

“Awh, look at the noble Markiplier,” Darkiplier taunts. “Willing to die for a nobody.”

“No one is a nobody,” Mark fires back. “And you need to _stop_.”

“Not on either of your lives, you ignorant child.” Darkiplier adjusts his coat irritably. “You cost me a great deal of time and effort, you know.” He attempts to grin, but it’s more him baring his teeth like an animal. “Now it’s time for me to get that back.” He throws his hands out and there’s a deafening wave of static. I can see Mark’s mouth moving but whatever he’s saying is lost. Darkiplier’s stalking towards him, clearly planning on murder.

 _I have to do this and now, or we’ll lose the chance,_ I think, and I thrust my screen towards Mark. He sees the screen flash towards him and the last I see of him is a comical surprised look on his face as he vanishes. The static disappears, replaced by Darkiplier screaming in rage. All around me the world starts to crumble in response to Darkiplier's wrath towards my blowing up all his plans in his face. _Dark’s seen Labyrinth too many times,_ is the first thing that occurs to me and I start weakly laughing as I try to crawl away from the man in black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're nearing the end here. Can you make your escape?  
> I'm psyched to see so many hits and kudos. Thanks everyone! I'm already starting to think about the next story!


	8. World Falls Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again, it's just you.  
> So what are you going to do about it?  
> Do you make your stand?  
> Or do you just fall down?

“ **ANTI!** ” Darkiplier roars as he continues after me, something heavy falling from above right next to me as his voice reverberates throughout the space. I can feel the edges of the path ahead growing closer and closer together. My primary concern as the ground disappears, as this reality starts to collapse, is I’m going to run out of space soon to make an escape. “ **ANTI, GET OVER HERE! NOW!** ”

I try to crawl faster, clutching my cell phone for dear life and praying that I’ll figure out a way out of this. _God I wish that I had vlogged more,_ I suddenly think. _I could have just sent myself back like I did with Mark and Jack._

There’s a hissing nearby, and I look up from the ground into one glowing green eye. “You’re cornered now,” he says, a growl reverberating through his words as he bares his fangs at me. “No getting away any more. You had better be the tastiest morsel in the world for all the work I’ve had to do to get to you.”

I exhale slowly, stopping and looking between the two. Darkiplier is getting fidgetier by the second, and his form seems to keep glitching out just as frequently. Anti’s looking positively feral as he crawls towards me, talons scraping into the ground. “So now what?” I ask after a moment of adjusting, laying on my uninjured side with my hand pressed into the spot where I was stabbed. It’s throbbing in pain, and the spot is warm and wet even now. My crawling certainly isn’t helping things, and I wonder briefly if I’ve ended up getting the black crystals littered on the ground into the wound as well. _God only knows what those are actually made of…_ “They’re both gone. I got them out.”

“I don’t even care for the game any longer,” Darkiplier snarls down at me. “Now all I want is to see you punished for your insolence.” He looks at Anti. “I give you free reign, old friend. Make all the mess you like.”

_What do I do..?_ I think, looking up at the two of them. _I don’t know how to fight back anymore._ Anti picks me up by the leg and whips me into the floor, making my teeth rattle when my head slams down into the ground. _I don’t know how to get myself back home. I don’t even know if I_ can _get home again, with how badly I’m hurt right now. I don’t… I couldn’t focus enough to try and get away right now._ I close my eyes as Anti stalks towards me, fangs gleaming as he pulls one hand back, clearly gearing up to attack again. _I’m just so tired… I want this to end… but at least I got Mark and Jack back where they should be. I at least did that much right._

But then, there’s a voice in my mind, cutting through the fatigue and the injuries. _Hey! Don’t give up. Not yet. Help’s on the way._

_That’s right!_ And another voice now, just as clear. _Hang on for just a little longer! We just need to break through!_

_...Jack? Mark? They came back..? How?_ I open my eyes. No. It’s just Anti over me, talons extended and swiping down at me, and Darkiplier in the distance watching with the coldest, most disgusted look on his face. I immediately shut my eyes again, not wanting to watch him attack me. _No. I imagined it. They’re safe, back in the real world. I’m probably hallucinating from the blood loss. Virtual blood loss._ I crack a smile, in spite of myself. I never could take things too seriously when I get this tired. _And no one around to res my sorry ass. Did I remember to save, or is there a checkpoint I’ll respawn at..?_

Anti suddenly lets out a scream of frustration, and I open my eyes again. His hand’s frozen in midair. “What is this-?” he shrieks, and then...

He answers himself. But it’s not the Antisepticeye voice. It’s Jack’s. “ _This is a bloody reminder, is what this is! We made you! We can break you too!_ ”

“ _Damn right we can!_ ” I look over at Darkiplier, who’s speaking with Mark’s voice again but definitely does not look like he’s willingly using it as he had done before in order to mock me and Jack. “ _The game is_ done _. It’s time to send everyone home._ ”

“Everyone?” I try to get myself sitting up, and almost start in fright as Anti moves to assist me. Then I realize that it’s like Jack who’s causing him to act that way and force myself to relax. He even actually leans into my back to act as a sort of seat for me to support myself against once I’m steady.

“ _You were right, boss,_ ” he say as he gets me sitting up. “ _There were loads of them- and every one of them a channel that had tried to get started doing Let’s Play videos as well and either gave up or were on a hiatus. Dark and Anti tricked them all into getting pulled into this mess._ ” He shudders suddenly, a faint growl coming from deep in the back of his throat. I start to panic that Anti’s regained control and has me in a completely vulnerable position right next to him before he speaks again. “ _You just got crazy lucky and found us before anyone could be seriously hurt._ ”

“ _But these two need to stop being assholes and release their hold on everyone,_ ” Mark adds. “ _Now._ ”

He then lets out a pained grunt, grabbing at his forehead, and his face contorts. I realize as I’m watching this that Darkiplier is making one last push for control. “No.” Once again it’s Darkiplier’s voice, and he lowers his hands into tight fists at his sides. “No! There’s no way that you’re going to stop me. I fought, and I planned, and I waited for too long, to lose at this game now-!”

“ _Give it up already, Dark,_ ” Jack says warningly. “ _I’ve already overpowered Anti completely, and Mark’s all hopped up on anger and good intentions._ ”

“With what?” he snarls sarcastically in response. “With your ‘positive mental attitude’? Forgive me if I’m not overwhelmingly impressed by that. You were smart enough to keep him at bay, to keep him under control, by not continually trotting him out.” He gestures upwards, and I realize that he’s trying to somehow indicate Mark as he continues. “If he didn’t keep _referencing_ me, and putting me out there to be _consumed_ by his fans, then maybe he wouldn’t need to be fighting me for power right now-!” Darkiplier’s cut off by his body suddenly going forward towards me. Before I can do anything to move out of the way, he’s- well, I should say Mark is wrapping me up in a hug. I honestly can’t tell whose body is more tensed up from the shock of the physical contact, mine or Darkiplier’s. After a long moment, Darkiplier speaks again, quietly and angrily. “Fine. _Fine._ You win. The game is truly done.”

And as soon as he says that, everything is suddenly gone: the feeling of someone with their arms around me or leaning against my back. The fine black crystals digging into my palms from where they’ve pressed into the ground. The ongoing throb of pain in my side from where Anti had stabbed me. The various aches and pains from everything I’ve gone through. There’s a sudden rush of cold, like I’ve fallen into deep snow, and I come to sitting in my computer chair, back in my room, right where I was when all this insanity started: staring at my own video, the last one I recorded. There’s a fading pink and green pulse of light from the edges of my screen that I stare at until my eyes water and I have to blink- and once I have, it’s completely gone.

_Was I asleep?_ I wonder, looking around my room. Nothing’s out of place. The overhead light is on, as it should have been when I first got up. I look at my hands and arms and legs- there’s no signs of being scratched by the crystals. _I must have fallen asleep sitting up and dreamed all that._ Then I lift my shirt and look at my side.

There’s a huge, ugly bruise on my ribs, shaped roughly like a knife going in between the ribs would.

“Holy shit,” I whisper aloud. Then I look down at my desk and see the 3D glasses neatly set on my keyboard. “ _Holy shit!_ ” I’m actually shaking at this point. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself down, and close my eyes, trying to collect my thoughts. It’s a good twenty minutes of me just running through everything in my head before I finally decide what I’m going to do next, and that’s to turn on my webcam. I wait for everything to get set up for recording, and then quickly neaten up my hair before I press the record button.

“Hey everybody,” I start, my voice still shaking slightly. “I know my channel’s gone a bit… dead, lately, but… here I am again. I’m going to keep going and keep trying. Let’s just say I, uh… I had my own personal boss fight to deal with. But I made a decision during that. And that decision is that…” I blink, trying to find the words. Suddenly, they’re there, pouring out me like I’d known them all along. “My decision was to be the boss in my life. Not some monster. I’m going to do what makes me happy, what I think is important. That starts with this video. I don’t want to be doing this to get famous, or to make money, or to break into some other career. I just… I want to share the joy I get from this with people. If that gets me everything I ever wanted, that’s great. But if that only connects me with a few new friends, then that’s even better.” I fidget a little, trying to figure out what to say next. “So I guess… that’s it for right now. I need to get some rest now… it’s been a crazy couple of hours for me with some drama and stuff, and I’m really ready to sleep. I’ll get something up this week, and I hope to see you there. Good night everybody.”

I shut the webcam off and immediately upload the completely unedited video to my Youtube, setting it up to post to my social media as well with my usual tags. Then, on a whim, I add #imtheboss as a joke for myself. As soon as it’s successfully up, I shut off the overhead light and then go collapse into my bed, pretty much immediately falling asleep as soon as I do.

I wake up to my alarm at 7:30 and stay awake long enough to email my professors and my work-study supervisor that I’m out sick today, given how queasy and sore I feel, before dozing off again with my cell phone in my hand. When I wake up again at 10, I immediately go to the bathroom to check my side again. The bruise is still there. _I really wasn’t dreaming,_ I think. _Which means that cringy video is real too._

“You know what? Whatever,” I tell my reflection. “That’s who I am, and everything I said was what I meant to say. I’m not taking it down. Nobody has to like that but me.” I take a shower, eat my late breakfast while taking notes on the readings or Powerpoints for the classes I missed today, and then I finally look at my phone to see what I have for updates or reactions to the video.

I have follow notifications, on both Twitter and Youtube, from both Mark and Jack’s accounts.

I nearly throw my phone across the room.

I spend the next ten minutes not even knowing what to do with myself. Maybe it’s a fluke. Maybe this is part of some big goof? I don’t think that they would prank their fans but _why_ else would they be doing this? I go to Twitter, and see my video post is blowing up because both of them have retweeted it. “What the actual _fuck_ ,” I say to my room. “What the actual, factual _fuck_ -?”

I sit down at my computer and then spend the next couple hours reading people’s comments and retweets of the videos, responding to all that I can. Some are goofy, others are cynical and looking for support, others are so heartbreaking that I’m wiping away tears. But every one is amazing, and genuine, and I’m exhausted by the time I finally give up the ghost to go eat something.

And after that?

I keep on keeping on, as the saying goes. I get videos up once a week as the school year goes on, increasing to twice a week over the summer break. I end up on a Discord server with other small Youtube creators, and we start filming collaborative videos and doing big, long-term projects. I’m asked if I’ve ever thought about making my own evil alter ego as we get near Halloween.

I say no, adamantly. I say there’s no room for negativity in my life, even if it’s just a character.

I never really tell them why.

Spring arrives again, and there’s plans made to meet up at PAX East with three of the other northeastern US creators. Since I’m closest to and most familiar with Boston, I’m put in charge of the hotel and local logistics. The panel schedules get posted and suddenly the topic of conversation becomes how funny it would be if I “finally” met Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, since they follow my channel and my twitter but have never said or done about it.

The weekend of PAX finally rolls around and we arrive in Boston. We sit in the hotel and plan out our personal schedules. I make it a point to at least get into the autograph line for Mark and Jack. If nothing else, I figure, seeing them in person may be what I need to give me closure about all the weirdness from the previous year, which I’ve started to believe may have just been some fever dream or hallucination on my part.

Two of the other creators and I get in the line. It’s a mob, and we’re on our feet shuffling along for a good hour before we’re at the front. I’m suddenly shaking. “I can’t-” I mumble, trying to figure out a way to escape the line. But one of my friends shoves me forward, and Jack looks right up at me as I stumble into the table. “Sorry-!” I blurt. _Great first impression. A+._

His eyes search my face, looking surprised as well, before he grins at me like he’s known me forever. “Mark! Look!”

Mark looks up, and as soon as he’s spotted me he’s immediately smiling as well. “Boss!”

__**The End** _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! I feel bad for this being super short compared to the last two, but I wrote what felt right. This story came insanely fast for me so I hope no one thinks that they're necessarily going to get stuff that quickly from me in the future lol.
> 
> I've already got another fic with these two losers in it and more in the works. I'm hoping to get the start of that up next week, once I have all the plot nailed down and a first chapter written up. So if you liked this, stay tuned!
> 
> Again, thanks so much for reading this, and much love for the kudos/comments.
> 
> Take care of yourselves out there :)

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact, this was going to be a fan game but I decided it would work better as a story instead. Plus I haven't a lot of extra time for learning how to program a game. Please let me know what you think!


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